1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a joining device for a rail of a baby bed, and more particularly, to a joining device for a rail of a baby bed, which can prevent a fabric covering of a baby bed from being gripped between a rail tube and a connecting iron plate of the joining device when the bed frame of the baby bed is retracted.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, the use of a baby bed is relatively common. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional baby bed in which a rail member 1 of the baby bed is in an extended state and covered with a fabric covering 10. FIG. 2 is a front view showing a structure of the baby bed shown in FIG. 1, in which the fabric covering 10 covered on the rail member 1 has been removed.
As shown in FIG. 1, when the baby bed is in use, the bed frame (for example, the rail member) thereof is usually covered with the fabric covering. Moreover, in current designs for most of the baby beds, considering that the bed frame may occupy a larger space when the baby bed is in use, the bed frame is often designed to be retractable so as to reduce the required space for storage and facilitate a carrying or moving operation of the baby bed. Therefore, a fixed or movable locking means (can be also referred to as “the joint”) is further added to each of the base frames or the rail members of the baby bed so as to achieve the possibility for the retraction of the bed frame of the baby bed and provide the convenience in using and operating the bed frame of the baby bed, as shown in FIG. 2.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional rail member 1 is generally comprised of a left rail tube 2, a right rail tube 3, a connecting iron plate 5 and a rail locking means 4. Each of the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3 is pivotally connected to two ends of the connecting iron plate 5, which are opposed to each other, and the rail locking means 4 is adapted to control the extension and retraction of the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3 with respect to the connecting iron plate 5.
With reference to FIG. 2, the rail locking means 4 of the conventional rail member 1 is mainly provided with a button 6 for retraction. When the baby bed is to be used, the rail member 1 is extended as shown in FIG. 2, and then a relative position of the extended left and right rail tubes 2, 3 and the connecting iron plate 5 are locked by the rail locking means 4 to thereby keep the rail member 1 in the extended state. If the baby bed is not used, the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3 can be folded up with respect to the connecting iron plate 5 by pressing the button 6 provided on the rail locking means 4 such that the rail member 1 gets into a retracted state to thereby maintain the rail member 1 to be retracted.
However, most of the designs for the retraction of the rail locking means 4 of the conventional baby bed are not ideal. For example, with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 which shows a partial enlarged side view of the rail locking means 4 of the conventional rail member 1, when the baby bed is to be retracted, the button 6 on the rail locking means 4 is depressed such that the locking state between the extended left and right rail tubes 2, 3 and the connecting iron plate 5 is removed so as to respectively render the left rail tubes 2 and the right rail tube 3 to be pivotally rotated upwardly with respect to connecting iron plate 5, so that the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3 are folded up to thereby implement a retraction operation of the baby bed. Moreover, the fabric covering 10 that is originally covered on the rail member 1 may become loose due to the retraction of the rail member 1, and the loose fabric covering 10 is extremely easy to drop into a space 7 between the rail tube (2 or 3) and the connecting iron plate 5 and thus gripped by the rail tube and the connecting iron plate. Further, not only because the edges of the two ends (only an edge 8 of an end of the two) of the connecting iron plate 5 joined with the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3 are each formed with a cut surface shaped when the processing of the connecting iron plate 5 is performed, but also because the bending angles at the edges of the two ends of the connecting iron plate 5 and the tube walls of the rail tubes are not matched with each other, a concentration point by the force will be generated when the connecting iron plate 5 is in contact with the rail tubes, and thus a frictional or stricken trace 9 is very easily formed on the left and right rail tubes 2 and 3. In addition, when the retraction operation of the bed frame is performed, since the bed frame is covered with the fabric covering, the loose fabric covering 10 is often gripped in between the rail tubes and the connecting iron plate. Even when the rail tubes are completely retracted (that is, the rail tubes are rotated upwardly by 90 degrees), the fabric covering 10 is often torn since it was tightly gripped in between the tube walls of the rail tubes and the shaped cut surface of the connecting iron plate.
To overcome the defects of the rail members of the conventional baby bed described above, the present invention provides an improved rail member of the conventional baby bed. In addition, such an improved rail member has the following advantages, for example, it is implemented to prevent the situation that the fabric covering is easily gripped by the rail tubes and the connecting iron plate when the retraction operation of the bed frame is performed and a safe locking and retraction of the baby bed can be achieved.